Trappist abbot sees ‘consonances’ between Pope Leo’s election, Algerian martyrs

May 14, 2025

» Continue to this story on L'Osservatore Romano (Italian)

CWN Editor's Note: Father Thomas Georgeon, OCSO, abbot of the Abbey of La Trappe and postulator of the canonization cause of the 19 blessed martyrs of Algeria, remarked on the “consonances” between Pope Leo’s election and the martyrs, who were slain between 1994 and 1996:

• Pope Leo was elected on May 8, the feast day of the blessed martyrs.
• Pope Leo is a member of the Order of St. Augustine, and St. Augustine was bishop of Hippo, in modern-day Algeria.
• Two of the 19 martyrs were Augustinian nuns.
• Upon his election, Pope Leo described Christ’s peace as a “peace that is unarmed and disarming.” One of the martyrs, Blessed Christian de Chergé, OCSO, upon meeting an Islamist militant, prayed, “Lord, disarm me, and disarm him.”

Father Georgeon also discussed echoes of the words of other Algerian martyrs in Pope Leo’s words. (Georgeon, however, overlooked another “consonance”: Prévost was the last name of one of the 19 martyrs, Blessed Odette Prévost.)

The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.

 

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